In the round-up: Formula 2 champion and Aston Martin junior driver Felipe Drugovich says he is looking to race in any series that is on a level higher than F2 in 2023.
In brief
Drugovich aims to race ‘any level higher than Formula 2’ in 2023
Formula 2 champion and Aston Martin junior driver Felipe Drugovich says he is looking to race in any series that is on a level higher than F2 in 2023.FIA rules forbid Drugovich from competing in F2 for 2023 as champion. He was signed by Aston Martin to be the first driver of their new driver development programme and will undertake a test programme in 2023 and attend a number of races with the team.
While Drugovich has not confirmed any racing plans for next season. However, he says he is only interested in racing in categories above F2, such as racing Hypercars in the World Endurance Championship.
“I’m just hoping I can race something professionally,” Drugovich said. “Also something that doesn’t really clash so much with Formula 1. So it has to be a programme that doesn’t take so many days from my year.
“Anything over Formula 2, I’ll be looking at. So it could be Hypercar or Super Formula or anything. I just don’t know yet what it is.”
Maloney named FIA Rookie of the Year
Zane Maloney has been named the FIA Rookie of the Year for 2022. Maloney, who placed second in this year’s FIA Formula 3 championship in his first year in the category, received the annual award presented to an outstanding rookie in any FIA-sanctioned series at yesterday’s FIA prizegiving gala.
The 19-year-old took three race wins, two poles and four podium finishes across the 2022 season. He was also given the opportunity to race the final round of the Formula 2 season in Abu Dhabi with Trident.
Gran Turismo 7 wins Best Sports/Racing Game Award
Gran Turismo 7 was named the Best Sports/Racing Game of 2022 at The Game Awards during the annual event in Los Angeles attended by the most prominent figures in the games industry.
The PlayStation exclusive game beat out fellow racing game nominee F1 22, sports titles FIFA 23 and NBA 2k23 and cartoonish skateboarding game Olli Olli World to win the category, judged by a fellowship of international games journalists. No simracing team or driver was nominated for any of the esports categories.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Abu Dhabi GP: The story behind my weekend (Nicholas Latifi)
"At the end of the debrief, there was a surprise when most of the team came into the engineering office to present me with a signed rear-wing endplate from the Hungarian GP car that I drove to my first points in F1. It’s very cool!"
Honda - Civic Type-R GT (ex Max Verstappen) (Catawiki)
"This is a unique opportunity to get hold of the car of twice F1 world champion Max Verstappen, given to him by Honda. The driver who continues to break record after record, putting him among the greatest Formula One drivers of all time."
2022 FIA General Assembly (FIA)
"Ben Sulayem also gave details of steps taken to tackle online abuse using an artificial intelligence system that has blocked 2,400 severely toxic messages from appearing on the FIA’s social media channels."
FIA reveals winners of new FIA president's awards (FIA)
"The 2022 FIA President’s Awards were given to the Royal Automobile Club of Jordan for its photovoltaic station, Mobilité Club France for its mobisenior.fr website, and Motorsport Australia for its Racing Together initiative. The FIA President also decided to give a Special Award to the Fédération Automobile d’Ukraine for its Intensive Emergency Training for Internally Displaced Female Drivers. They will all receive up to €10,000 of financial or in-kind contribution from the FIA to support the implementation of their projects."
FIFA, Formula 4 and karting: Introducing Bari Boroumand (McLaren)
"Sitting third in the championship, 19-year-old Iranian racer Bari Boroumand has helped lead McLaren Shadow's fight for the 2022 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship title, with a victory and five podiums in total. Ahead of the season finale on 14 - 16 December, we grabbed Bari on a day in the Shadow Studio and got to know him a little better over a lap of one of his favourite circuits, Zandvoort."
"News Corp understands Supercars immediately got in touch with Ricciardo’s management after his move to Red Bull was confirmed to discuss possible appearances at various events next season. Ricciardo has publicly stated he wants to take a step back from Formula 1 next year and recently voiced his desire to ride a motorbike across the United States, as he tiptoes into a 12-month racing sabbatical."
PRUETT: IndyCar’s ambitious play for new TV viewers (Racer)
"It’s fair to say the IndyCar Series has made incremental gains in attracting new and younger fans in recent years, but there’s no denying a significant challenge remains in establishing IndyCar as something other than grandma and grandpa’s favorite racing show."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
It's officially official 🏆 Constructors' Champions for the fifth time 👑 #F1 pic.twitter.com/xxxsP2ikm1
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 9, 2022
There's the shot 📸 World Champions 2022 👑 #F1 pic.twitter.com/UyaC3XkRRm
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 9, 2022
🏆 The 2022 #FIAActionoftheYear is @LewisHamilton overtaking @Charles_Leclerc and @SChecoPerez at the @F1 British Grand Prix!#FIAPrizeGiving pic.twitter.com/vMXVw73n5g
— FIA (@fia) December 9, 2022
Brackley squad. ❤️ We are so proud of every single person in our Team. You continued to push and never gave up. We simply couldn’t do it without you. 👏 pic.twitter.com/t74nNXBBVM
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 9, 2022
How great is the power of dreams? We will find out together on Tuesday, 13 December.#Ferrari pic.twitter.com/7RzdxEgoct
— Ferrari (@Ferrari) December 9, 2022
His reactions to pole position in Brazil and Kev’s karting tips!
It’s all in our second part of Ask Kevin 🇩🇰#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/aUaogSIn2y
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) December 9, 2022
Still a thrill to visit McLaren’s Tech’ Centre for a shoot… here’s Ricciardo’s Monza winning MCL35 pic.twitter.com/ZfS0Od8UmS
— James Mann (@JamesMann63) December 9, 2022
I guess it's a test piece to see if a printed resin part could be strengthened with carbon.
This was a common Jordan trick used on suspension elements and gearboxes.
The rear of the pedal face is backed with carbon, plus machined flat sections of carbon are added to the bottom. pic.twitter.com/Sp4G1zqi8Q— Craig Scarborough (@ScarbsTech) December 9, 2022
I’m terribly sad to hear about the passing of Syd “Silverstone” Herbert. #SilverstoneSyd. Had the pleasure to see him not long ago. Many is the time that he dug me out of a gravel trap in the early 90s with a grin & a sarcastic comment. He was no bullshit but a good man. #RIPSyd
— Johnny Mowlem (@johnnymowlem) December 9, 2022
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Formula 1 is setting up an F1 Academy in a bid to provide more opportunities for young women in motorsport develop their skills in a sport where funding limits opportunities. Reader @alianora-la-canta recognises the complex realities facing racing drivers who are women.
Exclude girls from sport by treating them worse (which especially extends to funding), and they don’t develop their talents fully as women. There’s a reason there’s been a big improvement in women’s football in the last 3 years following a significant (but still a drop in the ocean compared to men’s football investment levels) increase in funding.
The what-ifs don’t work when we already know that for this generation, women were denied the opportunity to meaningfully compete on merit against men (most likely due to finances).
I don’t think F1 Academy is likely to be any more successful than W Series because both miss the actual problem – they treat women as important as an accessory to men’s sport instead of doing it as an integral part of a combined sport and showing their worth in and of themselves. I did an equation and worked out that W Series would probably have been better off funding 4-6 cars in British F4 and providing the support structures W Series had (feasible with the money said to have been budgeted) and doing a documentary/TV series to garner media interest.
Alianora La Canta
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to French Steve!
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stever
10th December 2022, 4:48
Indycar. They sure put the scare to F1 back in the CART days and might do again.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th December 2022, 6:04
Well, what series doesn’t clash with F1 often?
SF might be this way, but whether that series has enough drives left for next year is another matter.
A 2021 Hungarian GP rear wing endplate is an interesting gift.
I like that Ferrari stole Honda’s slogan.
Imre (@f1mre)
10th December 2022, 8:43
WEC only clashes 5 times. (out of 7) Missing 5 out of 24 weekends is not that much.
Qeki (@qeki)
10th December 2022, 9:58
@jerejj I forgot it was Hondas slogan.
Maybe in some universe they will work together to build the absolutely perfect power of dreams
Gabriel (@gabf1)
10th December 2022, 7:55
Is Indycar a higher level than Formula 2 for Drugovich?
(there may not be spaces!)
MichaelN
10th December 2022, 19:52
The model discussed in the COTD works just fine in the ELMS. The all female Iron Dames car is a regular podium contender in their class. Talented women need money to finance a real motorsport career, not their own fenced off series.
Aside from making small adjustments that might make driving the cars more comfortable for women, there is no reason for segregating motorsports. It isn’t a sport like cycling, tennis, football or the like where women simply can’t compete with adult men.